366 



2 



before the quills have lost the coloration of immaturity : I have examined several specimens which 

 have the head black, and which still retain much black on the primaries, the black crossing both webs 

 near the tip, and forming a subterminal bar. 



The present species inhabits the Mediterranean, ranging eastward as far as Asia Minor and the 

 Black Sea, and as far west as the west coast of France. It has on one occasion been obtained 

 even as far north as Great Britain; for Mr. Saunders states (Ibis, 1872, p. 79) that a specimen 

 in the British Museum was, as he ascertained by careful inquiry, shot in January 1866 near 

 Barking Creek by a waterman, who brought it to Mr. H. Whitely, of Woolwich, out of whose 

 hands it passed into the British Museum. It has not been met with in any other part of 

 Northern Europe, and is, indeed, of rare occurrence further north than Bordeaux. According 

 to Naumann it has straggled into Central Germany, as he states that it has occurred on the 

 Bodensee and Central Rhine, and a young bird was killed near Mayence in September 1822. 

 Messrs. Degland and Gerbe merely record it as of accidental occurrence in France ; but Mr. 

 Howard Saunders states that it is annually obtained off Bordeaux ; and, according to M. Adrien 

 Lacroix, it breeds regularly in Aude and the Pyrenees Orientales. He received one from near 

 Pinsaguel, twelve kilometres south of Toulouse (where it is very rare), in February 1867. I 

 have no data as regards its presence in Portugal ; but Mr. Saunders states that it regularly 

 ascends the west coast of the Iberian peninsula, and outside the Straits of Gibraltar he observed 

 it, apparently breeding, in the marshes of Huelva. Colonel Irby, however, remarks that he 

 only met with it in winter in the Straits, and never saw one with a black head. It is common 

 on the coasts of Italy and Sicily ; and Mr. A. B. Brooke states that it is extremely numerous 

 from the Straits of Bonifacio northwards. Mr. Wright says (Ibis, 1864, p. 152), " This is the 

 common Gull of Malta, and visits us very regularly at the time of its migration. It arrives in 

 large flocks about the first week of December, and sometimes a little earlier. By the end of 

 March, when it has assumed the pure black head of the breeding-plumage, it suddenly departs 

 in search of suitable places for nidification. Not a single bird lingers behind; and all my 

 endeavours to find it breeding here have proved in vain. It is very sociable in its habits." 

 Lord Lilford, writing to me respecting the range of this Gull, says: — "I have never met with this 

 species westward of Marseilles, but frequently observed it in the harbour of that town and at 

 Toulon in the winters of 1873 and 1874 and 1874 and 1875. It is common all down the Italian 

 coast in winter, also in Sicily, Malta, Tunis, all parts of the Adriatic which I have visited, Crete, 

 and Cyprus. At Famagousta, in the latter island, we found this species in immense numbers in 

 April 1875, evidently on migration, and obtained many specimens with the full black head. I 

 could not discover that this Gull is known to breed in Cyprus. This species may be easily 

 distinguished at a distance from Larus ridibundus (which is very abundant in many parts of the 

 Mediterranean) by its cry, which is much harsher and of a different tone, closely resembling that 

 of some of the Terns." 



In Greece, Dr. Kriiper says, it occurs sparingly and not every year ; but it is stated by 

 Colonel Drummond-Hay to be common in winter on the Ionian Islands ; and doubtless this is the 

 bird referred to by Lord Lilford (Z. <?.), under the name of Larus atricilla, as being common at 

 Corfu. It is common in Turkey, and breeds in the Dobrudscha ; and Messrs. Elwes and Buckley 

 speak of it as being numerous in the Black Sea and the Levant. Dr. Kriiper found it common 



